How Can SEO Improve Your HR Recruitment Efforts

For the past few years, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been the buzzword in the digital business world - and if you haven't heard of it, it's high time you should start utilizing it as it offers numerous benefits to your company when done right. 

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of SEO, don't worry; it is an intuitive notion to adopt after you've got the basics down. Even if your company doesn't have a specialized department for digital marketing, you may still refer to and apply some of the guidelines below to enhance your HR recruitment efforts and the overall company's online presence. Nevertheless, you should at least have a website in view for your company - it's a must-have in today's business world. 

 

Below is a simple breakdown of what employers and HR leaders need to know. 

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

SEO is a digital marketing process of optimizing your website to rank better on search engines - such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing. This can be attained by combining the right keywords and several best practices. In simple terms, SEO enables your web pages and content to be more organically accessible to individuals searching for your company (or other related search keywords).

Major search engines like Yahoo and Google depend on bots that gather information from websites all over the Internet, store related data about these sites, and eventually make them accessible for job seekers, consumers, etc. The biggest goal here is to allow your web page to pop up on one of the first few pages when someone searches for a specific keyword (for example, "best company to work for in Malaysia"). 

The more advanced your website's SEO performance, the higher your page will rank on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Eventually, this will increase organic traffic and visitors to your website, bringing more potential candidates and customers to your business. 

 

Tips on how to leverage SEO to attract top talents and increase the pool of candidates

Fun fact: 300 million job-related searches are performed on Google EVERY MONTH.

So if you want to reach a larger pool of more qualified candidates actively looking for jobs on Google, implementing the best SEO practices will be highly beneficial to ensure successful recruitment. Instead of just depending on your fellow recruiters, hiring agencies, or even your in-house HR hiring team, SEO allows potential candidates and top talents to come across your job postings, work culture, and information about how it's like to work in your company - increasing free organic traffic and leads. 

The prospects who discover job postings from these organic search results will most likely be more relevant to the actual job position your company has advertised. For instance, a job seeker who looks for "Marketing jobs in Kuala Lumpur" will probably be more interested and keen on an open position advertised - as opposed to others who are just screening through "available vacancies in Kuala Lumpur" on search engines or job platforms. 

In addition to SEO being an essential part of your business's overall branding strategy, SEO also increases credibility for your website and the company as a whole. In today's digital era, your organization's online presence is equally, if not much, more crucial than anything physical. So always remember this when designing any business strategies, including your HR recruitment efforts. 

 

Top SEO tips to take home

The first and foremost thing that companies need to realize is that SEO is not a one-time deal. Instead, it will be a continuous effort to ensure that your web page is always regarded as relevant by major search engines. This will typically involve your team regularly managing and updating your web pages. Below, we've compiled some of the more general yet effective actions to get you started on enhancing your website's SEO for hiring purposes: 

• Regularly update your web pages with relevant information
• Write and publish quality content and blogs on your website 
• Perform keyword research and incorporate keywords naturally throughout your website
• Make sure your website is built for mobile versions
• Create a 'Careers' webpage with relevant job openings
• Develop and optimize your Google My Business site

 

Key Takeaways

The business world is forever evolving, and SEO remains an ever-important tool for companies to leverage. Finding qualified talents is no longer enough with the efforts of HR and marketing teams, especially if you want to compete with other major companies already utilizing SEO's power. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned HR leader, consider implementing SEO to find the right talents who fit the requirements and goals of your company.

 

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